Malloy meets with Obama on budget stalemate

Ken Dixon

Updated 12:24 am, Tuesday, February 26, 2013

HARTFORD -- Gov. Dannel P. Malloy emerged from a 90-minute meeting with President Barack Obama on Monday deeply concerned that Connecticut towns and cities may be hurt further if the Washington budget stalemate gets worse.

While it might take months to determine the full effect of the so-called sequestration, Malloy said the president told the nation's governors that 750,000 jobs could be lost if the mandated spending reductions begin later this week.

"That's $235 billion pulled out of the domestic spending pipeline," Malloy said in a late-afternoon phone interview from Washington, where he was finishing up a weekend-long meeting of the National Governors Association.

He was also in Washington to attend his first meeting with the Council of Governors, to which he was appointed last week by the president.

Malloy said both Republican and Democratic governors attended the White House meeting.

"People are just shaking their heads," Malloy said, adding that some GOP governors held the Republican congressional theory that more spending cuts are needed rather than Obama's proposed tax increases on the wealthy.

In addition to funding for the National Guard, Connecticut stands to lose $50 million if the sequestration goes forward, including the termination of early childhood programming and the loss of about 120 teacher jobs.

"Municipal governments are going to want to be held harmless, but it's not a good situation," Malloy said. "I hope a good deal of this will unwind itself after March 1."

He spent most of the afternoon in the Pentagon with members of the Council of Governors, a group of 10 governors appointed by the president to discuss national security and homeland defense issues.